国际英语资讯:Spotlight: European summit agrees to permanent defense cooperation, increased anti-terrorism_时事

国际英语资讯:Spotlight: European summit agrees to permanent defense cooperation, increased anti-terrorism

Emmanuel Macron celebrated the moves in a press conference at his first European Summit since being elected President of France in May. Calling Entry/Exit checks an "indispensable element to a greater securization," he noted that he had defended such a policy during his campaign, against the calls of other French presidential candidates who wanted to throw out the Schengen agreement altogether.

The fight against terrorism and especially the struggle against terrorist propaganda online was another major theme of the first session of the European Summit. In light of recent attacks in the United Kingdom and other countries around the world, European leaders called on social media companies to do whatever necessary to stop the spread of radicalizing material on the internet.

"In practice, this means developing new tools to detect and remove such materials automatically," explained European Council President Donald Tusk, before adding, "And, if need be, we are also ready to adopt relevant legislation."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking to the press after the first session, said leaders had agreed that, "if necessary and if there is ground and hard evidence for a terrorist background, then we must track those communications links." She assured listeners, however, that user privacy needed to be respected, "which is to say, very strict legal rules have to be respected."

It appears that the first session of the June European Summit went more quickly and smoothly than expected, with Chancellor Merkel remarking that good planning for the meeting and strong understanding with her French counterpart had contributed to the efficient outcomes. "I believe that Franco-German cooperation went a long way to bringing about very positive results."